


been here all along

by hapakitsune



Category: Social Network (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Inspired by Music, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-17
Updated: 2011-11-17
Packaged: 2017-11-10 20:25:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/470336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hapakitsune/pseuds/hapakitsune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dustin has lived next door to Chris for most of his life and has had a crush on him for nearly as long.</p>
            </blockquote>





	been here all along

Dustin has a problem and his name is Chris Hughes.

This isn't new by any means. Chris has been Dutin's problem since they were both five years old and best friends. They're still friends, of course – Chris is far too nice to ever just ditch Dustin – but they aren't inseparable like they once were.

Dustin blames puberty. He had been a cute child, with round cheeks and big eyes and he knows that he was adorable. He's seen photos. Chris had been a slightly chubby kid with blond hair and, yes, big blue eyes. He had been cute, but not particularly remarkable. Then puberty hit and Chris grew taller, shed his baby fat, and grew his hair out into this boyband swoop that fell across his forehead in a golden curtain.

Dustin, on the other hand, grew up gangly and awkward. It doesn't help that his best friend is Mark, who was easily the most unashamedly nerdy person Dustin has ever met. Mark fences and programs computers and also likes to learn languages in his spare time.

Chris, on the other hand, runs track and is president of the school's GSA and basically he's the most fascinating, amazing person. Dustin has always known this, but now everyone knows it. Everyone likes Chris.

In any event, Dustin can see into Chris's bedroom from his window. It used to be fun when he was a child – they had stretched a tin can telephone between their windows and they'd even had walkie talkies at some point, though Dustin's had been eaten by his bed sometime around the fifth grade. Chris doesn't often draw his curtain, so Dustin can right into his room.

Right now, he can see that Chris is on the phone, looking annoyed. Dustin pushes up his reading glasses, then takes them off because they're hurting his nose. He looks thoughtfully at the stack of printer paper on his desk, then grabs the top sheet before he can rethink it and writes, "Are you all right?" in big block capitals.

He waits for Chris to turn before he holds it up. Chris looks confused for a moment before he breaks into a sunny smile. He holds up his finger, then turns away from the window. After a moment he comes back and holds up his own piece of paper.

 _Just drama_ , it says. Chris shrugs with a sheepish grin.

Dustin hurriedly scrawls, _Sorry, man :(_

Chris laughs visibly, throwing his head back. Dustin helplessly tracks the line of Chris's throat, swallowing hard against the hopeless wave of adoration that swept over him. Chris, still laughing, bent down to write something else. Then, _Thanks._

Dustin tries to smile encouragingly before turning back to his math homework. When he looks up again, Chris's curtains are drawn. He tries not to feel disappointed about that. It's kind of creepy of him to be sad that Chris doesn't want Dustin perving on him anymore.

 

 

The next day, Dustin is waiting for the bus when Chris comes out of his house. "Oh, hey!" Chris says cheerfully. Dustin jerks his head around, feeling himself blush. "Thanks for last night, it really cheered me up."

"No problem," Dustin mumbles, shifting from foot to foot. He desperately wants Chris to go away so he doesn't accidentally say something stupid.

"You want a ride to school?" Chris asks cheerfully. He jingles his car keys at Dustin. "I'm picking up Eduardo anyway."

Dustin tries not to give away how much that information irritates him. "I can wait for the bus."

"Oh, come on," says Chris cajolingly. "It's no trouble at all."

Dustin looks at Chris, wavering, then says, "Oh, fine." He hoists his backpack further up on his shoulder and crosses his front lawn to Chris's driveway. Chris beams and unlocks the car doors.

Dustin slings his bag into the passenger seat and sits down. Chris gets in on the other side, starts the engine, and then pulls out into the street. Dustin stews over the problem of Eduardo Saverin, who will apparently be joining their car journey.

Eduardo Saverin had moved to town when he was fourteen years old, fresh from Brazil by way of Miami. He was distractingly attractive, earnest, and well-dressed. Naturally, he and Chris had become fast friends. Dustin hasn't ever been able to figure out if the two of them are dating. He devoutly hopes they are not.

So of course, when they pull up in front of Eduardo’s (absurdly fancy) house, Eduardo breaks into a huge smile and says, “Dustin!” His voice is audible even through the glass of the window.

“Hi,” Dustin mumbles as Eduardo climbs into the backseat. “Don’t you have your own car?”

Eduardo does; Dustin has seen it. It was a sleek, shiny silver BMW that had been a sixteenth birthday from his father, who apparently spent a great deal of time in Brazil on business.

Eduardo’s face goes through a complicated series of emotions before finally settling on a slightly strained smile. “It’s more fun to ride with you!” he says, a little too loudly. “It’s nice to see you, Dustin.”

“Thanks,” Dustin says. He wishes that Eduardo wasn’t so absurdly earnest and polite. He’s sure that it must be a front for _something_ , but Eduardo has never given any indication of being anything other than a genuinely well-meaning, kind-hearted individual. It’s infuriating.

Chris and Eduardo embark on a discussion of people that Dustin doesn’t really know, so he ignores them and leans his head against the window. Eventually, Eduardo prods Dustin’s arm and says, “Hey, sorry, are we boring?”

Dustin turns to look at them, surprised. They both look wide-eyed and vaguely guilty, which is...surprising, yet somehow gratifying. “Oh, I, um. I don’t know those people.”

“They’re in GSA,” Chris says. “You should come to a meeting, Dustin! We have a lot of fun.”

“I have Math Club on those days,” Dustin tells him. It hurts him to say as much, but to his surprise, Eduardo suddenly brightens.

“I didn’t know we had a math club!” he says. “Who’s in it? Do you go to competitions?”

“Yeah, we go to competitions,” Dustin says uncomfortably. “I don’t think you know anyone in the club --”

“Is Mark Zuckerberg in it?” Chris asks, looking over at Eduardo with a smirk on his face. Eduardo glares at him, then smiles at Dustin.

“Is he?” he asks.

“Mark? Yeah, he runs our website,” says Dustin, frowning. “You know Mark?”

“Oh, we know Mark,” Chris says in this tone that Dustin doesn’t understand at all. He gives Eduardo another conspiratorial look. “Don’t we?”

“Shut up,” Eduardo says, going red. He turns firmly away from Chris to look at Dustin. “Do you need any more people? I’m pretty good at math.”

“I -- I don’t know,” Dustin says, startled. “I’ll ask Erica, I guess.”

“Cool,” Eduardo says happily. “That’ll be fun.”

Dustin wonders when he slipped into the Twilight Zone and gives Eduardo his brightest, falsest smile. “I’m sure it will.”

 

Mark is waiting for Dustin in from of the school, looking annoyed. When he sees Dustin getting out of Chris’s car, his expression darkens further. Eduardo waves energetically and calls, “Hi, Mark!”

Mark doesn’t even acknowledge Eduardo as he stalks over to Dustin. “I thought you had missed your bus again,” he grumbles.

“Hi, Mark,” Chris says, amused.

“Hi,” Mark says brusquely. “You have my Calc text.”

“Yeah,” Dustin says, twisting his backpack around so he can dig around for the book. “Here.”

“You really should find yours,” Mark says.

“Hi, Mark,” Eduardo says again, blushing. Dustin squints at him, then at Chris, who looks like he’s trying very hard not to laugh.

Mark gives Eduardo a surprised look, then mutters, “Hey,” and drags Dustin away from the car. “What the hell, Chris gave you a ride?”

“We’ve lived next door since we were, like, zygotes,” says Dustin, rolling his eyes.

“But he’s never given you a ride before,” Mark says obstinately.

“So?” snaps Dustin, although he had been thinking the same thing. “What about Eduardo? That guy has a total hard-on for you.”

“What?” Mark asks, startled. “Who?”

“Oh my god,” Dustin groans. “You’re an idiot.” He smacks Mark upside the head. “The guy who was with Chris. The tall one?”

“Oh,” Mark says. To Dustin’s secret delight, Mark begins to blush. “I -- I always called him Wardo.”

“You _what_?” Dustin exclaims.

“I thought that was his name!” Mark groans, speeding up so that Dustin has to half-jog to keep up with him. “I didn’t -- I’ve talked to him before, but I don’t know much about him.”

“One of these days, Mark, I’m sure you will rejoin the rest of us in meatspace,” Dustin says. “I look forward to it.” He slings his arm around Mark’s shoulder as they head into homeroom. “The rest of the world will weep in terror once you decide to turn the energy you usually use to troll people on Fark towards world domination.”

Mark rolls his eyes and shoves Dustin off, heading to his seat in the back of the class room. Dustin sits down at his own desk, two over from Christy Lee, who has left a cookie on his desk with the note, _Thanks for keeping me from keying Josh’s car_. He catches her eye and gives her thumbs up before stuffing the cookie in his mouth.

He catches up with her after class and says, “You didn’t have to give me a cookie for that.”

Christy gave him a look that had him cringing back. “No,” she agrees. “I didn’t.”

“Thank you,” he says in a small voice. She smiles sharply and pinches his upper arm lightly in what passes for a gesture of affection, then vanishes into her science classroom. Dustin trudges to English, which he shares with Chris, and tries not to be too dispirited by the idea of starting their next book, which sounded boring -- though it couldn’t be worse that _Ethan Frome_.

Chris waves at Dustin when he comes in. Dustin ducks his head and scurries to his seat, feeling his cheeks heat up. Their teacher passes out copies of _The Great Gatsby_ and says, “So let’s talk a little about the 1920s.”

 

 

When lunch rolls around, Dustin heads to the math club meeting, where Erica is having another argument with Mark over the car system.

“Look, Mark,” she snaps, crossing her arms over her chest, “I know it’s annoying, but we have to do it this way.”

“It’s stupid,” Mark says. “It would be far more cost efficient if we let the students drive --”

“Hi!” chirps Eduardo, sticking his head in. “Is this the room for math club?”

Everyone gapes at him for a moment. Alice Cantwel appears by his side and says, “Yeah, come on in.”

Erica looks at Dustin, who shrugs and gives Mark a pointed look. Mark coughs and turns his back on Eduardo, talking instead to Divya Narendra, their vice president. Erica offers Eduardo a smile and says, “Hi, welcome! What brings you here?”

“I didn’t even know we had a math club,” Eduardo says cheerfully. “But I love math. I’m pretty good at it, I think.”

“Well, the more the merrier,” Erica says kindly. “If you want to come to competition, you’ll have to take the test so we can figure out if you’re on A Team or B Team.”

“Cool,” Eduardo says, bouncing up and down a little. “Hi, Mark.”

Mark turns and looks at Eduardo, then says, “Hi, Wardo.”

Dustin rolls his eyes.

 

 

 _So how long has Eduardo had a crush on Mark?_ Dustin writes on a piece of paper. He waits until Chris looks up to hold it to the window. Chris laughs, eyes bright, and bends to write his reply. Like a creep, Dustin stares at him, overly fixated on the line of Chris’s profile and the swoop of his blond hair. After a minute, Chris lifts his sheet of paper.

_Pretty much since he got here. I have no idea why._

Dustin snorts, scribbles down, _I thought you were dating him._

Chris shakes his head emphatically when he sees that and smiles brightly at Dustin. _No. I’m single._

Dustin falls back from the window, heart pounding in his chest. He climbs onto his bed and resolves not to look back at Chris for the rest of the night.

The problem is, of course, that Chris is stubborn to a fault and he immediately corners Dustin the next morning. “You thought I was dating _Eduardo_?” he asks, half-laughing. “Really?”

“You guys are friends,” Dustin says huffily. “And around each other all the time.”

“We were friends, once,” Chris says, a little wistfully. “Do you remember that?”

“Uh, _yeah_ ,” Dustin says, rolling his eyes. “We had the cops called on us that one time because we were shouting so loudly.”

Chris laughs, shooting Dustin an affectionate glance. “I remember that. We were playing FBI agents and bank robbers.” He smiles. “You made a very cute FBI agent.”

To his _complete disgust_ , Dustin feels himself turn bright red. “You were totally unconvincing as a robber,” he says, trying to cover up his embarrassment. “You look too nice.”

“I _look_ too nice?” Chris asks in disbelief. “What does that mean?”

“It means you’ve got the golden-haired, choir boy look to you,” Dustin says, flapping his hand. “You’re all _clean_ and shiny and stuff.”

Chris says, “Shiny?” as he unlocks his car. “Get in here, tell me about my _shininess_.”

Dustin is going to have to tape his mouth shut. “No,” he says.

“You think I’m shiny,” Chris murmurs, smiling a little, and he pulls out of the driveway.

“Shiny is -- you have shiny hair,” Dustin says defensively. “It’s not anything else.”

“ _Shiny_ ,” Chris repeats and Dustin says, “Can we just forget the shiny?”

“Nope,” Chris says cheerfully, and he drives to Eduardo’s house, humming under his breath. Dustin curls up against the window and suppresses the urge to beat his head against the glass in annoyance with himself. They pick up Eduardo on the way, who gets into the backseat and says, “Hey!”

“Hi,” Dustin says, feeling much more charitable towards Eduardo than usual. “So are you in math club now?”

“Yep!” Eduardo says cheerfully. “Erica called me last night to say that I scored high enough for A team.”

“So you’re coming to competition,” Dustin says. “We have one in two weeks.”

“Two weeks?” Eduardo asks, frowning. “What day is that?”

“Um, Friday?” Dustin says. “Why?”

“Homecoming!” Eduardo exclaims. “I was going to go to the dance.”

“With who?” demands Chris.

“I haven’t asked him yet,” Eduardo says, embarrassed.

“We’re usually done by six,” Dustin says. “You’ll still be able to go. I don’t know why you’d want to, though. Dances are such a waste of time.”

“You’ve never wanted to ask someone to a dance?” Chris asks, glancing over at Dustin. “Never wanted to just take someone out and have an excuse to hold their hand the whole night?”

“Isn’t that just a regular date?” Dustin asks blankly.

Chris doesn’t reply, which makes Dustin feel like he said something wrong. He glances back at Eduardo, who is rolling his eyes. Dustin looks back at Chris guiltily. “Are you going to go?”

“I don’t know,” Chris says evenly. “I was thinking of asking someone, but I don’t know if he wants to go with me.”

“Who?” demands Dustin, affronted.

“Oh, no one,” Chris says, glaring through the windshield. “Just some guy.”

“Is it Jake from our English class?” Dustin asks. Jake Marshall has been flirting with Chris relentlessly since the beginning of the year, much to Dustin’s annoyance. “He’d say yes.”

“Oh, really?” Chris asks sharply. “He _would_?”

“Yeah,” Dustin says grumpily. “He would.”

“ _Great_ ,” Chris says, flinging his car into a parking space. “Good to know.” He throws open the door and stomps out. Dustin, completely mystified, gets out and watches as Chris storms off towards the lockers. Eduardo snorts.

“You fucked that up,” he says before going after Chris. Dustin shakes his head in incomprehension and goes to his own locker.

Chris ignores him completely in English, instead turning toward Jake fucking Marshall and giggling with him or whatever. Dustin frowns and bends over his copy of _The Great Gatsby_ , glaring at the type as though somehow it’ll distract him.

It doesn’t help that the stupid book is about unrequited love, he thinks later that week. Chris has kept the curtains of his bedroom resolutely shut for the past three nights and hasn’t offered Dustin a ride. Mark finds it completely hilarious.

“I’m usually the one who offends people,” Mark says, smirking. “This is great. For once people are furious with you and not me.”

“Not people, just Chris,” Dustin mutters, slamming his locker shut.

“No, Eduardo thinks you’re an idiot too. He told me to tell you to ‘pull your head out of your ass,’” Mark says.

“Oh, _Eduardo_ ,” Dustin says, raising his eyebrows at Mark. “Eduardo thinks that, does he?”

“Shut up,” says Mark, flushing.

“Has he asked you to Homecoming yet?” Dustin asks, heading for the door to the parking lot. “You gonna buy him a corsage?”

“We have competition that day,” Mark says. “Why would we go?”

“There’s time after that,” Dustin points out.

“I’m not going to Homecoming,” Mark says sharply, and he half-jogs out to the bus.

 

 

 _The Great Gatsby_ proves to be the most irritating book in the world. “Why doesn’t Jay just go after Daisy?” he demands in class. “He’s being such a coward.”

“And what if Daisy doesn’t want him?” Chris shoots back, eyes flashing. “Maybe she’s happy with Tom.”

“How could she be happy with him?” scoffs Dustin. “He’s a jerk!”

“And so is Gatsby!” snaps Chris, at which point their teacher breaks them up, saying, “Boys, settle down, let’s finish reading the novel before we debate, shall we?”

Fuming, Dustin sits back in his seat. Chris gives him a look, then sits straight again, mouth pressed in a thin line. Dustin glares at the back of his stupid, shiny head, and wishes he didn’t think Chris was so cute when he was angry.

At the end of class, Dustin is getting ready to leave when he hears Chris says, “Hold up a moment, Jake.”

Dustin looks up sharply as Jake turns to look at Chris, his eyes bright and eager. “Yeah?”

Chris shoots a look at Dustin, then turns his back firmly on him and says, “Jake, will you go to Homecoming with me?”

“Oh!” Jake exclaims. “Yes, yes, of course!” He’s smiling widely and for a moment Dustin hates him so much that it takes all his willpower not to shout or jump over his desk. Annoyed, Dustin grabs his backpack and stalks out of the room.

 

 

“I can’t believe he _likes_ Jake,” Dustin grumbles to Alice during Math Club.

She chews meditatively on one of Christy’s cookies and then says, “Maybe he doesn’t. Besides, I hear Jake has a big crush on one of the Winklevosses. You might be okay.”

“Which Winklevoss?” Dustin asks, momentarily diverted.

“I don’t know, does it matter?” asks Alice. “My point is, I know Jake and he basically just wants to be Chris. And it sounds to me like Chris is trying to make you jealous.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter,” Dustin says, “because I’m not going to Homecoming anyway. They can -- french kiss and hold hands all they want. I’ll go home and -- watch _Die Hard_.”

“Yeah, that’s not sad at all.” Alice smirks at him. “Even _I’m_ going.”

“With who?” asks Dustin, mildly affronted.

“None of your business,” she says primly. She promptly spoils the effect by leaning in and whispering, “Steven Yi.”

It takes Dustin a moment to recognize the name. Then he says, “Wait, the captain of the swim team?”

“Yep,” Alice says smugly.

“Ugh, you suck,” Dustin says.

Up at the front of the classroom, Eduardo is leaning over the desk where Mark is writing out the paperwork for competition (apparently Erica’s punishment for arguing with him about transportation again) and talking animatedly. Mark looks up and smiles at Eduardo, that sweet smile that he rarely offers anyone. Dustin scowls at them.

“Yeah, they’re disgusting,” Alice says in agreement.

“The worst,” Dustin says.

 

 

That night, Dustin stares fixedly at the window to Chris bedroom, where the curtains have finally opened. After an hour of brooding, he writes, _Congrats on the date_ , and presses it to the window.

Chris stares at him, then writes, _Are you coming?_

_No._

_Too bad_ , Chris writes back and then he turns away from the window. Dustin stares at the slim line of Chris’s back and wonders what the hell that was supposed to mean.

“You really don’t get it?” Eduardo asks in disbelief when Dustin mentions it at lunch. He’s taken to sitting with Dustin, Mark, Alice, and Christy. “Wow, I thought Mark was obtuse.”

Christy snorts into her salad.

“What is _that_ supposed to mean?” demands Dustin.

“Nope, you have to figure this one out on your own,” says Eduardo.

“You guys are such jerks,” Dustin says and he eats the rest of his burrito with a vague sense of betrayal.

 

 

He doesn’t figure it out until the night of the competition. He’s playing cards with Alice and Divya while they wait for their round when it hits him suddenly, like a bolt of lightning. He turns and looks at Alice.

“Chris was going to ask me to Homecoming, wasn’t he?” he says. “And then I made him angry.”

“Mm hmm,” says Alice in a bored tone. “Finally up to speed with the rest of us?”

“And he asked Jake to make me jealous,” Dustin says slowly. “Right?”

“Right,” Alice says. “Looks like it worked, too.”

“Oh my god,” Dustin says, sitting back in his seat. “I’m an idiot.”

“Yeah,” Alice agrees. “You are.”

“What am I going to do?” Dustin wonders.

“Play your hand,” Divya says, pointing imperiously. “You don’t see _me_ worrying about the fact that KC is waiting for me and that we’ll probably be back too late for me to take her out for dinner, do you?”

“This isn’t the same, Divya, KC is already your girlfriend,” Dustin says. “I don’t even have a _suit_!”

“It’ll be fine,” Alice says. “I’ll sneak you in, you can make your dramatic declaration, we’ll all live happily ever after. Sound good?”

“Sounds good,” Dustin agrees.

 

 

Dustin’s round goes fine -- he bullshits the final answer as usual, since no one knows how to solve the really hard questions in the research round -- and he grabs Alice on his way back to the cafeteria. “What do I do?” he asks her nervously. “I didn’t even _mean_ to make him mad, what if I do something wrong?”

“Just tell him you like him and then kiss him,” Alice suggests, twirling her pencil between her fingers. “That should work.”

Dustin doesn’t really like that idea -- it lacks a certain flair -- so while they’re waiting for the scores to be tallied, he pulls out a sheet of paper from his notebook and writes, _I have a crush on you_ in big block letters, then folds it up and puts it in his pocket.

“Do I want to know?” Alice asks, having watched the whole operation in bemused silence.

“Probably not,” Dustin admits.

 

 

To no one’s shock, Mark places first in his category again. To some mild shock, Eduardo places second. As a team, they place third. Eduardo lets out a delighted shout when he hears that and turns and kisses Mark full on the mouth, right in front of everyone. Mark flails a little, then grabs onto Eduardo’s collar and holds on for dear life.

“Oi, cut it out, you two!” Erica says, thwacking Mark over the head with a bit of rolled up paper.

Eduardo pulls back and says guiltily, “Sorry.”

“I’m not,” Mark says, looking very winded and very smug.

“Okay, let’s get a move on,” Erica says, glancing at her watch. “We all have places to be, don’t we?”

“Yes,” Alice says firmly, seizing Dustin around the wrist. “Come on, you loser.”

He lets her drag him out to where her mom is waiting in the car. Divya hurries after them, muttering under his breath. “Come on,” Alice says to her mom. “We’ve got to get ready.”

 

 

The dance is in their school gym, which Dustin thinks is pretty lame, but he’s wearing dark jeans and a button down t-shirt that they’re hoping will pass as half a suit. Alice tosses her hair, tottering a little on her heels, and waves energetically at the boy wearing dark aviator sunglasses and lurking by the entrance to the gym.

“Steven!” she calls cheerfully. “Hi!”

“Alice!” he calls back and he comes over to take her arm. He nods to Dustin. “Hey.”

“Hi,” Dustin says.

“We’re sneaking Dustin in,” Alice says to Steven. “We need to distract the door chaperone. So when I say go, we’ll start making out, okay?”

Steven lifts his shades and grins. “I am totally fine with that.”

“Okay,” Alice says, looking to the door as Divya and KC go inside. “And she’s looking over here. Go.”

Steven sweeps her into his arms and they start sucking face. Dustin rolls his eyes and backs away towards the door as the door chaperone shouts, “Hey!”

He darts inside as the chaperone goes over to break Alice and Steven up, mentally reminding himself to give her some sort of present in the future. He looks around for Chris, but doesn’t see him anywhere. Frustrated, he paces around the edges of the dance floor. The music is thumping, and he can’t see through the crowd of students on the dance floor. Dustin goes to the bleachers and climbs up so he can get a better vantage point. Chris’s head of blond hair is a little more difficult to find than he thought it would -- but then Chris turns his head and Dustin recognizes his profile instantly. He jumps off the bleachers and makes his way towards where he saw Chris, elbowing people aside indiscriminately.

He finally finds Chris, who is sweating a little, red-faced and gorgeous, his tie loose and his shirt unbuttoned a bit. Dustin taps his shoulder and waits for Chris to look at him.

“Dustin?” Chris shouts. “I thought you weren’t coming!”

Instead of answering, Dustin pulls out his note and unfolds it. He watches Chris’s eyes move, reading it, and then Chris looks up, eyes wide and disbelieving.

“Really?” he half-shouts to be heard over the music.

Dustin shouts, “Yeah. Sorry I’ve been such a --”

He’s cut off when Chris reels him in by the shirt and kisses him full on the mouth, the piece of paper fluttering to the ground. Dustin wraps his arms around Chris’s neck and holds on for dear life, trying not to be jostled by the dancers surrounding them.

“You’re such an idiot,” Chris tells Dustin when they break apart for breath. “I’ve been in love with you since we were twelve years old.”

“I know I’m an idiot,” Dustin says breathlessly. “Alice informed me of that, in great detail. I think you should punish me with more kissing.”

Chris nuzzles Dustin’s cheek. “And that will help you learn?”

“It’ll certainly give me incentive not to fuck up again,” Dustin says.

“Well, all right,” Chris says, and he kisses Dustin again.


End file.
